- Joined
- Dec 31, 2024
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 7
Hello everyone, I can't believe I didn't find WF sooner!
I use deep listening techniques to achieve altered states of consciousness. At this time I mostly create feedback drones and static hums to explore my unconscious.
I fell into magic after experiencing trance states while playing music and attending concerts as a teenager. At the time the only word I had to describe my experience was "shamanistic", I was on another plane, or another dimension. I grew up in a spiritual pocket of Southern California, and I would wander the streets after school, visiting bookshops, and studios. I walked into a purse shop and befriended a shaman. At first it didn't occur to me to share these musical trance experiences with her because I had never tried to articulate them to anyone. Then at a New Years show at 18 I started rolling around in broken glass, I couldn't feel a thing. I was dragged away and interrogated. I wasn't under the influence of any substance, but it would be a stretch to say I felt "sober." My mind was melting and I was in ecstasy. The next week I brought this incident to the shaman and I asked her if she knew anything. She gave me an amazing answer. She said "I know a lot, but I'm not going to tell you anything. These are answers you need to find yourself through experience and reading books."
She recommended a few writers, mostly Theosophists. I learned that our town was(is) a Theosophical hub. I started googling around for books on consciousness and I eventually found a PDF library on archive.org. My eyes kind of glazed over the Crowley, and I recognized Dion Fortune from our conversation. The word Psychonaut kind of flashed at me. I read the first two essays of Liber Null by Peter J Carroll in that PDF and it validated the focus and meditation techniques I was using for music and writing, as well as a post-modern psychological understanding of belief that I had resonated with since I was 13, when I discovered that the LDS church made some discredited historical claims (to put it lightly). I cast my first sigil and acquired a physical copy of Liber Null & Psychonaut that week at my local bookshop.
Chaos magic as outlined in Liber Null provides a framework for occult experiences that gives me room to express myself and find my own way. I honesly think most other writing on chaos magic further dogmatizes the wellspring of thought in Liber Null, which is antihetical to the approach- this espcially includes further work by Carroll. I'd rather use the framework or theory to explore other texts and mainly make my own magic.
I've consciously been practicing magic for 7 years, though my discipline and consistency still waxes and wanes. Unlike the more "practical" chaos magicians, I'm more interested in the transcendental. I truly value my imagination as a creative force in the universe. I use these trance experiences to learn more about myself and through that self-knowlege I can better achieve my material goals. The direction to "read books" set me on my career path as a bookseller. I've been doing it for 6 years and I wouldn't rather do anything else for money. I will not be using this forum to direct people to my wares, but I think it's an important part of who I am. Magic is a literary tradition.
I'm seeking a social internet that is not dependant on advertising algoritms, so I'm really happy to have found this forum. I'm excited to see what I can learn form this community.
I use deep listening techniques to achieve altered states of consciousness. At this time I mostly create feedback drones and static hums to explore my unconscious.
I fell into magic after experiencing trance states while playing music and attending concerts as a teenager. At the time the only word I had to describe my experience was "shamanistic", I was on another plane, or another dimension. I grew up in a spiritual pocket of Southern California, and I would wander the streets after school, visiting bookshops, and studios. I walked into a purse shop and befriended a shaman. At first it didn't occur to me to share these musical trance experiences with her because I had never tried to articulate them to anyone. Then at a New Years show at 18 I started rolling around in broken glass, I couldn't feel a thing. I was dragged away and interrogated. I wasn't under the influence of any substance, but it would be a stretch to say I felt "sober." My mind was melting and I was in ecstasy. The next week I brought this incident to the shaman and I asked her if she knew anything. She gave me an amazing answer. She said "I know a lot, but I'm not going to tell you anything. These are answers you need to find yourself through experience and reading books."
She recommended a few writers, mostly Theosophists. I learned that our town was(is) a Theosophical hub. I started googling around for books on consciousness and I eventually found a PDF library on archive.org. My eyes kind of glazed over the Crowley, and I recognized Dion Fortune from our conversation. The word Psychonaut kind of flashed at me. I read the first two essays of Liber Null by Peter J Carroll in that PDF and it validated the focus and meditation techniques I was using for music and writing, as well as a post-modern psychological understanding of belief that I had resonated with since I was 13, when I discovered that the LDS church made some discredited historical claims (to put it lightly). I cast my first sigil and acquired a physical copy of Liber Null & Psychonaut that week at my local bookshop.
Chaos magic as outlined in Liber Null provides a framework for occult experiences that gives me room to express myself and find my own way. I honesly think most other writing on chaos magic further dogmatizes the wellspring of thought in Liber Null, which is antihetical to the approach- this espcially includes further work by Carroll. I'd rather use the framework or theory to explore other texts and mainly make my own magic.
I've consciously been practicing magic for 7 years, though my discipline and consistency still waxes and wanes. Unlike the more "practical" chaos magicians, I'm more interested in the transcendental. I truly value my imagination as a creative force in the universe. I use these trance experiences to learn more about myself and through that self-knowlege I can better achieve my material goals. The direction to "read books" set me on my career path as a bookseller. I've been doing it for 6 years and I wouldn't rather do anything else for money. I will not be using this forum to direct people to my wares, but I think it's an important part of who I am. Magic is a literary tradition.
I'm seeking a social internet that is not dependant on advertising algoritms, so I'm really happy to have found this forum. I'm excited to see what I can learn form this community.
